Countdown to Christmas: Recent Episodes
Palm Valley Church
Palm Valley Church, located in Arizona, exists to lead people to become fully devoted followers of Christ. We also believe that church should be relevant, inspiring, and should put a personal relationship with Christ ahead of organized religion.
Merry Christmas! Today we celebrate the birth of Jesus through a variety of traditions!
God begins to send signals that the Savior, Jesus Christ (The Messiah), is not going to look as the people imagine Him to look.
God uses Caesar's decree to bring Mary and Joseph from Nazareth to Bethlehem for Jesus' birth.
We do not know a lot about Joseph, Jesus' earthly father. However, what we do know of him shows him to be an incredibly honorable man.
God speaks through one last prophet, Malachi. In this short book, a prophecy is given about the promised Messiah. To be more specific, a prophecy is given about someone who will come right before the Messiah to prepare the way for Him.
God brings His people out of exile back into His Promised Land, but they are still under foreign control.
The exiles were returning! God's promise was once again kept. The promise that was given to Abraham about a land, a nation, and a Savior was coming closer to completion.
This picture is becoming even clearer as God is sending messages of hope through His prophets to His people in exile.
God is promising the miraculous. He would bring His people back out into their own land. He would somehow protect their identity and culture if they would just remain faithful.
God sends His prophets to warn the people of their wicked ways and God's desire for them to turn back to Him. Sometimes they would listen, other times they would not.
David has faith. He has seen God's faithfulness in the past for smaller things and he believes Him for bigger things.
The theme of redemption comes up over and over again in the lives of God's people. It's sending signals that this is the big thing that God is going to do.
Rahab is another shining example of how God uses imperfect people to carry out His perfect plan.
God's desire is for man to be in relationship with Him. Therefore, since He gives His people rules to live by, He also gives them a way to reconcile their errors, the sin that separates man form God.
When God gives the Ten Commandments to His people, it is further clarification of His promise.
One day, Moses spots a fire off in the distance. As he approaches the scene he realized that this is no regular fire.
As we continue our countdown to the arrival of the Savior, we follow the family tree from Abraham to Isaac to Jacob.
God's promise is still intact. Despite the errors and failures of members of Abraham's family, God continues His faithfulness.
This image of God providing the sacrifice is a snapshot of what God is going to do in the future through the Savior.
God' rescue plan for man continues to unfold and refine as we are introduced to Abraham.
God's promis to rescue man from sin continues to develop through the account of Noah. The Savior is coming!
Adam and Eve gave into the temptation and broke God's rule and because of this, sin entered the world.
Jesus has always existed. Although we are counting down in expectation to the brith of Jesus, we need to be mindful of the fact that He did not come into existence on that first Christmas morning.